Thank you very much. Welcome, everybody, to our this year financial figure call for the full year. I will guide you through the presentation. As mentioned, and afterwards, all the three of us, we are available for a Q&A session and to discuss our figures in detail. Starting with some highlights regarding our—just a second, yeah—the environment we are in. Just a quick one, Jonas. [Foreign language] . So, we saw in Germany actually quite a long economic stagnation. As pointed out in the headline, it's now a period of already 15 quarters of no growth of the GDP in Germany. That development started, as shown here by our former or still Minister Robert Habeck, middle of '21, and is continuing, and it seems to continue also at least throughout the first quarters in 2025. So, last year we saw a recession.
We saw a decline of GDP of 0.4%. This resulted, following the prior years, 2022, 2023, already in a bumpy environment in Germany, in a very clouded business climate, and a negative sentiment throughout the management levels we see in Germany. That developed or worsened throughout the year 2024, with the lowest level actually in the fourth quarter. This pessimistic view we saw resulted then in quite a reluctance to invest by corporations, a lot of delayed decisions, and basically for B2B service companies in a slowdown in the day-to-day business. That was accompanied also by an increasing unemployment rate in Germany, which rose to 6.4%, or 3 million people unemployed, which we have not seen for some years in Germany, actually, if you take out the pandemic situation. Having that picture in 2024, let's point out some highlights. I want to guide you through the following slides.
In 2024, we for the first time saw or experienced for a very long time stagnation in our Personnel Services segment, resulting in the end in declining earnings. Nevertheless, we once again achieved quite high operating margins above market average, and that resulted in an operating result for the Amadeus Fire Group in 2024 of nearly 13%, 12.7% exactly, which is compared to our peer groups a very high level of profitability, even in good times. For Amadeus Fire, we are not used to that margins. We are used to higher margins. This I have to clearly state. Earnings per share developed from EUR 7.12 per share to EUR 6.01. We want to stick to our current dividend policy of a two-thirds of earnings payout ratio, which will result in the proposal to propose the AGM of EUR 4.03 dividend per share. Equity ratio increased throughout the year 2024.
Very good news for us. Monika joined the team in fourth quarter 2024 last year. Very important step for us that we are back as a good team here at the management board, the three of us, to develop Amadeus Fire Group further and to further strengthen with Monika the training segment. Now I have to announce something regarding myself. Just yesterday, I extended my contract for another five years, beginning next year till end of 2030. I am very much looking forward to be part of the Amadeus Fire Group now for another, at least, what is it, almost six years. Very delighted to do so, especially in stormy conditions. I think the situation to have a good team in place in that situation and with all the opportunities ahead is quite good news. At least I feel delighted to be part of it.
Said so about the opportunities we have, I clearly have to state that in 2025, we will see another challenging year for us as Amadeus Fire Group in that conditions we are currently in. The long-term development is we are a case of steady and stable growth, organic growth, developing our organization, improved with some acquisitions on top we did. I mean, we see that picture to continue mid and long term to use that market potentials we further see in Germany. Regarding our earnings development or operating EBITDA development, after a long period of growth, we this year saw a decline in margin and also in result, as what I said, the sentiment was not favorable for staffing and also some news in training, which were not in favor in second half year.
After two growth years in a recessive environment, which clearly indicates that the scarcity of qualifications in the tight labor market is, from our point of view, still the most driving factor for us, for our business. We are in this long-lasting cycle and the negative sentiment we increasingly were in in 2024. We are still in second place exposed to that cyclical development and saw the decrease in our results. Brief view on the cash flow from operating activities and free cash flow. We deliver traditionally on a very high level throughout all the years with a significant step up 2020 to 2021 due to strong rebound in or strong development in staffing and the new business in training. We have in 2024 some statements. Why is it dropping that way?
We have a one-off in terms of income taxes paid in 2024 that increased by EUR 12.7 million to EUR 26.7 million. This is, let's say, positive working capital management the last years. Government did not claim taxes for quite some time. Now they were due. It was accrued for the last years. We had that outflow in 2024 showing that one-off impact. One other effect in working capital we saw is we saw a positive. We see development from trade receivables and payables of EUR 5.5 million and a countering effect in other liabilities, which was mainly also in accrued amounts for remuneration, especially also for management board long-term incentive plan due to the current development that liabilities decreased. Also for some options we have for minority shareholders throughout our group because.
[Foreign language]
For how long was it not?
I would say around 30 seconds. I guess maybe we can repeat that page.
Okay. I just restart on that slide. We saw of all the quarters of the four quarters, the fourth one, I would say, was the weakest. We saw declining macro figures. We saw also some clear statements throughout our sectors and peer groups stating about that effect they saw in the fourth quarter, like we did. For us, November and December were from October to November was a point in time where we saw our business on a new lower level. Start fourth quarter was quite comparable to third quarter situation, but then it declined in November and December. Why is that? You can read some here, but I would like to state that out in talking through the segments in more detail. For the full year, 2024, in the big picture, we saw a stable development in sales.
Overall, we kept our course of running a profitable business with double-digit operating margins. Nevertheless, here, due to the development in the second half year, our targets we set ourselves beginning of the year in the training segment were not fully met, almost met, but not fully met. The main topic last year was actually the situation we saw in our staffing segment, that the behavior of corporations and also clients were that the activities our sales organization, our consultants showed were not converting as usual in placements for several reasons along the chain of a placement process, either if it is temporary staffing or permanent placements. In the end, our operating EBITDA was mainly affected by the pressure we saw on staffing gross profit.
We countered that development by cautiously declining our sales organization in staffing, not replacing vacancies, very closely monitoring performance levels of every individual team. If there was change, we did not replace. The number of overall fee earners, how it's often called in our industry, declined year on year by around 9%. That was not fully countering the decrease we saw from performance on a gross profit level. On the other hand side, we are in the middle of a digital transformation outside in the markets we are operating in, but also in response and to be, well, future-ready within the Amadeus Fire Group. This ended up in around EUR 6 million increase in operating expenses for IT technology and some related personnel costs and future projects. We started to use technology in both segments significantly.
This is how result 2024 is spreaded over the segments, revenues, and gross profit, and the development throughout the years. What you can, well, realize here that in our staffing segment, we are, well, very strong positioned, not only in temporary staffing, but also in permanent placement in the meantime. The share of training is increasing. One statement on our dependency on industries or single corporate customers in B2B business, this is just B2B, you will realize that our activities, our regional activities throughout Germany are spreaded over all sectors. No single sector is above 10% of the overall share. Also our top 10 customers in 2024, which, by the way, normally change every year because this is most of the time driven by some projects of corporations, is just 5%. A large customer base unchanged for the Amadeus Fire Group in B2B business.
Let's dive a little deeper in our segments. One first view, three services in temporary staffing, sorry, in staffing, which is temporary staffing, permanent placement, and interim and project management. The development through the quarters shown here as growth on prior year quarter for the last eight quarters. You will realize that in 2023, there was still dynamic development, especially in permanent placement, a flattened development in temporary staffing, and some momentum at the end of the year, especially in interim management. That through the year 2024 changed in declining situation in temporary staffing and permanent placement and following a very nice growth, a slowdown of growth in interim management also the second half year. Also here, - 17, - 20, zero, the lower level of permanent placement in fourth quarter clearly pointed out. Why is that?
In the end, I would say that the behavior of corporations regarding the hiring of personnel, first, the overall demand, but secondly, if there is demand, how do they really convert that in placement that developed negatively, level of demand and conversion. Also, candidates' behavior. A conversion is in the end depending on the client, but also on the candidate. Candidates tend to stick more to the current job to choose the secure opportunity, opportunity to stay with their employers and not to take the next step in the current situation. Overall, the shortage of qualification and skilled people remains a factor also for both services. This is also something we have to state. There are still some processes where the challenge is to find the right candidate.
The new situation is that in the meantime, corporates ask more for the perfect candidate and not for the acceptable candidate, which was the situation more over the last years. Interim project management in an environment of change, that service is quite robust. This is what we saw also throughout the last year and were able to nicely grow that business. Fourth quarter, this is the picture I guess I already painted. A decline in net fees of 19%. This is a significant number and a number we have not seen for some time in the past. This decline in gross profit of almost EUR 7 million, we could not cope in the result, which declined by EUR 5 million also in the fourth quarter.
Sorry to interrupt you again, Mr. von Wülfing. Unfortunately, we cannot hear you again just around for 10 seconds, I would say.
I just said that the sales organization, as mentioned, was adjusted 9% year on year. The result could, well, hold against to some extent, but not to the full impact we saw in gross profit. For the full year, this is what I mentioned for the group, but also for staffing, to point that out clearly, a 13% margin in the staffing industry is a very good margin. In that environment we are in, even better. Amadeus Fire is used to achieve even higher margins. For us, this is clearly the task for the upcoming years to regain ground, to improve productivity or conversion of the demand we are working on to get back to the margin levels we are used to.
In the middle of talking about difficult situation, difficult environment, clients' behavior, which is difficult to place in the end, our candidates and our employees, we are still a very profitable and high-margin staffing business in that environment we are facing. Talking about training, this is more to reread the different markets we are operating in and the exposure of the different markets to the cycle. On the next slide, you will find some information how our business is currently set up. If you make up a little matrix showing the skill portfolios we are offering and the different markets we are operating in and the different brands we are holding within our group, within Monika's responsibility. There is quite a wide spot, as you can see.
In the end, when we talk about also anorganic growth opportunities and development M&A targets, this wide spot in the broad field of commercial qualifications and IT qualifications and generally skills you require in headquarter structures, which is also maybe leadership or project management, governance, compliance topics. This is where we are focusing on to develop a broader B2B offering by acquiring companies or by founding businesses ourselves. Monika just started, but she's indeed already in that field of, like, exploring that wide fields or green fields for us here in the B2B business and also to use our very good B2B capability and access to HR departments and corporations we already have. Looking into the business itself in fourth quarter, the first three-quarter picture was a little different. We saw growth. In fourth quarter, we saw a deep growth or a decline, sorry.
First, to some extent, that was expected. The calendar 2024, I do not know the word for Schaltjahr in English, but that additional day in February moved the Christmas days and all that in December in a way that the training calendar ended much earlier. It was less time available and therefore year on year comparable was naturally weaker that we foresaw. Nevertheless, we had some developments, which we did not anticipate beginning of the year. One was the change in late spring last year and the terms and conditions, how we are allowed to offer through the public search engine, which slowed down that channel.
The number of offers were limited and Comcave as a company especially offering a very broad range of training classes and courses, very high number of locations in Germany was impacted as some other players were by that change in terms and conditions. We discussed that throughout the second half year last year already. The impact was higher than anticipated in the beginning when we saw the change, which slowed down third and fourth quarter. In the last quarter, we also saw first the discussions around the, well, it's called the public budget for 2025, which delivers some uncertainty for the payers, employment agencies and others to publish the training vouchers needed to do funded training. We saw the breakdown of the Ampel coalition in Germany, which also added some uncertainty, which slowed down fourth quarter.
As you know, situation's clearing up, but that impacted some months from the beginning of that budget discussions and the end of the German government. On the other hand side, we also have, like in staffing, but especially also in training, some expenditure on technology, on information technology, on including technology in the way we are delivering our training formats. Very interesting market, actually, very interesting environment. Training or how training is done is in a deep change process. No matter if you train grown-ups or children, academic or on the job, it is more digital, it is more technical supported. Different tools, different didactic concepts are needed. Here we are in the middle of a changing environment, which actually is also, on the one hand side, is a challenge.
On the other hand side, it's great to be part of it and to deliver training on the next level in the end to our participants. For the full year, we saw revenue growth and in the end, a stable earnings development. All three major brands saw an increase in sales led by GFN, followed by Comcave and the Tax College, Dr. Endriss . The same growth rate we have not seen in results. First, in the gross margin, it's almost parallel development here. Expenditure for lectures and a couple of things increased significantly throughout the year. We have kind of a wage inflation also in that field. On the one hand side, on the other hand side, going out of the first half year, our sales organizations were, well, set up for a higher number of participants than in the end came through.
This is not to adapt within a few months. The utilization, let's say, of the overall training organization was at a lower level in the second half year. Following that, statements on the two segments, some on the dividend policy, unchanged. What we propose now for the AGM in May this year is the payout ratio of two-thirds of our earnings per share, which is EUR 4.03 per share. We like to be, well, foreseeable in what we do.
Mr. von Wülfing, again, we can actually.
I should be back here. Can you hear me again?
Yes.
Good. Sorry for the bad line. I just said following that statement that we stay with the policy, paying out EUR 4.30 if the AGM approves. Capital allocation for us is something we are very closely monitoring. I mentioned already our, well, our targets to grow in training also by acquisitions. This is first priority for us. I would say we are funded to do so. A dividend policy, the current one I just mentioned, but a dividend policy, which changed over the years, but should be reliable, is a second part and a third part, which for the first time we did end of 2023, but consistently is monitored, is also share buyback programs, which we have done once, have not done in the meantime, but this is something we also monitor closely, consistently.
After we had a look on 2024, some statements on how we feel to be positioned in general and then to give some statements on the outlook. First, what are, from our point of view, the value drivers for the Amadeus Fire business model? We do see a lot of competitive pressure in our markets, but that always means that you can gain market shares. We are in both markets in a strictly regulated market in Germany. The fact that we have limited human resources or scarcity of personnel is still the case and will stay a critical success factor in a growth scenario more than a declining scenario, obviously. The issue of this scarcity is valid already for some years. What we see now is the beginning of a demographic development because the baby boomers, how we call them, just start to retire.
This is a net outflow of the German labor market of around 100, sorry, around 500,000 a year for the upcoming decade. This will accelerate the pressure from scarcity of personnel. In the training segment, and here, funded training is a very important pillar of the overall business. All parties, and this is already stated back again in the sounding paper before the negotiation started between Christian and Social Democratic Party, that training is the most important instrument to counter unemployment and to prepare people to re-enter the labor market. We see a nice opportunity there, especially because qualifications will change the next decade a lot from our point of view. The willingness to invest in either recruitment or training to find or retain personnel by corporations and also by the government should be high.
There's a competitive pressure, but on a national scale, the market entry barriers in that specialized areas are also high. For us, we counter or we answer, sorry, that drivers with our unique portfolio of combining training and staffing and doing it even more the next years to interlink that services or segments. We do have excellent market perception, which when it's about people, perception is key. We gained market leadership in a lot of niches we are operating in, which gives us a very strong position. Our highest asset is our employees. Also within our temporary employees, the highest retention rate we have in the market indicates the quality of our personnel. That results in some strategic statements. The next slide. For us, base is to make it short and clear.
For us, reputation derives from first excellence in what we do and second from speed, how we do that. Here is the first focus. It's a long-lasting relationship we are establishing with every, well, stakeholder we are operating with, but stakeholder is the wrong word because it's people. With any individual person, we are in touch throughout the professional life. We want to establish a lifelong partnership, no matter whether it's a representative of the client participating in our training or a candidate we in the end employ or find a new job for. This results in steady expansion, organic and inorganic, and in achieving, let's say, back again, or probably also in 2024, the highest operating margins in the industry. Next. Now, some statements on the outlook 2025.
In the beginning, I said, well, it's a very interesting and very in the market full of opportunities ahead. Nevertheless, 2025, from our point of view, will be another challenging year. This is also reflected in our outlook. Last year, we saw, as I mentioned, a steady decline in the environment we were operating in. We saw the weakest months in November and December, and we haven't seen an improvement based on these two months beginning of the year. Also, probably a little bit learning from last year, our assumption is that we will not see any significant improvement throughout the year 2025. The outlook is based on that assumption. Yes, I do know there is that, well, or this funds accepted now in Germany, some investments, public investments to be expected. The business climate index is improving.
Yesterday was the information that there was a next month of improvement. For us, this is no clear indicator so far. Also from our clients, we do not get the feedback that we have a real change in the underlying sentiment of pessimism in Germany so far. We are here in a cautious assumption environment for 2025, which results that we do foresee revenue of, in average, slightly above EUR 400 million and in average operating result of EUR 40 million. That will deliver some more pressure on our operating margins. You saw the margins in fourth quarter. We did investments in technology last year. They peaked, but they will not decline in 2025 because we are in the middle of some large projects, which will continue. It will be fully new applications either for staffing and for training.
We have to do a lot around data to use data appropriately and so on and so forth. No relief here from that side. Nevertheless, as you can imagine, we are very closely monitoring every euro we spend. Okay, now you should hear me back again. Was it a few seconds or? Yeah, that's why it's good. As you can imagine, we are very closely monitoring every euro we spend. We have already an extensive program in place to achieve cost savings and to, not only save, but also to improve our top line and to start some initiatives on top of what we budgeted so far, which in the end should lead to a still acceptable level of earnings. The overall assumption is giving the pressure on staffing gross profit and also on opportunities in training.
In detail, the outlook also published in the annual report, which you can find on our homepage since yesterday evening and with additional explanations here, shows the development we foresee in revenues that we have another step back with given assumptions in both, sorry, in Personnel Services to a larger extent and a slight growth in Training and the operating result also with a cautious outlook to decline from EUR 55 million to EUR 40 million. I do know significant decrease of 28% to a margin of then calculated 10% on average throughout those segments, more decrease from staffing, but a slight decrease also in Training. This is the, well, challenging picture we see in 2025. Just let me do some closing remarks. I do think that Amadeus Fire as a group is, well, I would say excellently positioned to gain from an improving situation.
For us currently, we are not able to foresee when this improving situation is to be expected. We decided to not expect it in 2025. The development in concrete we will see. We will operate cautiously on the one hand side. On the other hand side, we will in both segments keep our organizations in shape and in performance and ready to react on improving sentiment. In training, I think it's the more easy picture in that regard because the outlook in B2G, business to government, is not that dependent on a turn in the cycle, more the other hand round. Here the additional unemployed we might foresee from the industrial sector is an opportunity. In first place, cautious planning, keep on investing in our future opportunities. Technology will drive a change in both our sectors. Combining the both sectors by Amadeus Fire will generate additional opportunities.
This is the positive closing and outlook mid and long term, which the three of us are very delighted to be part of that process and to develop the company further the next years and to maneuver the current situation best to then start picking up our business in a less cloudy weather. I do hope that it was understandable after this break in lines we had, but now happy to answer your questions.
Thank you so much for your presentation.
That was the presentation. We can.
Move on with the Q&A session. Thank you again. To keep this conversation engaging, we appreciate it if you would ask your questions in person via audio line. To do so, just raise up your virtual hand. If you have done it by phone, you can use the key combination star key nine to enter the queue, followed by pressing star key six to unmute yourself. For sure, you can also submit your questions in our chat box, and we will read them out for you. Please bear in mind for all three options, we would ask you to provide us with your real name and your institution. We already received a hand from Andreas Wolf. Just ask your questions to us.
Yeah, hi. Thank you for taking my question. Congratulations on the contract extension, Robert. The first question also goes to you. On the outlook for 2025, in the press release at least, there was a lower number of employees that was emphasized. Does this include any active measures, or is this still the attrition that will mainly be driving this development? I.e., are you still keeping the organization intact to prepare for an improvement in the or to be prepared for the improvement in the market? The second goes to Monika Wiederhold. My question is on KURSNET. Could you provide insights on the measures that were implemented as a reaction to the changes that were made on the platform? Would you see an improvement of the Comcave business going forward?
Related to the training education business, that's my third question. Is Amadeus or Comcave and GFN able to compensate for the increasing lecturer fees? I.e., are there higher reimbursements from the public authorities? The last question is for Dennis Gelitzki. Given the temp decline that we've seen in the business, does this reflect overcapacity on the client side, or is it basically related to permanent shrinkage of the client businesses that lead to lower demand? As AI is a big buzzword right now, are you in a position to use AI to find and match candidates? Is it something that would be supportive for your business? Thank you.
Okay, thanks, Andreas. First, thanks for your initial words. Regarding the number of our employees, as I said, cautious maneuvering throughout the year. That means that we, well, reflect every position. We have to keep the organizations in place and the ability to participate from a proving environment. First, second, we are very profitable. For me, no need to fundamentally restructure because that would wipe out future opportunities. We have a motivated team in place. We have a very good and very performance-led culture at Amadeus Fire. This, in general, we keep in place. That does not mean that every single employee will be on board the next year. You always have fluctuation. If we have that, we will reflect whether we have to replace or not, or whether we can solve the task in a different way.
We always reflect on our organization's efficiency. We use technology to improve processes, to improve the way we do our business. This leads also that in some teams, you maybe need less resources. This is, well, this is professionally managed at Amadeus Fire in the past and will also be professionally managed in 2025. Hope that answers your question. Then.
May I take over?
Yeah.
Andreas, thank you for your question on KURSNET and asking for measures installed. Of course, there had been reactions already last year when the situation occurred. There is a full catalog of measures, but maybe two of them to highlight. First of all, there is portfolio optimization to really make sure that we match the existing situation with the best and most probable portfolio we can offer. Second, there is a full lead generation program to see how we can improve our lead generation and conversion part. That is one of the main issues in Comcave, and there is a full catalog installed. We can see improvements. However, and Robert mentioned it in his presentation, they have also seen another factor kicking in, which was the unsecurity in the public funding area where we had hesitant approvals from the agencies.
This is stabilizing now. Our outlook is very optimistic here. On Comcave and GFN, both you asked for the compensation of increasing lecturing fees. Again, that is an issue that is affecting all training suppliers where I would say two measures are in place. One is professionalizing the management process of the lecture management, but also looking into insourcing lectures, especially in the B2G sector. Of course, we are looking into technological possibilities to have both options and supporting also technological content. Last but not least, are there higher reimbursements from the public sector? You know the mechanism. Of course, this will be recertified and reviewed on a regular basis. Again, of course, we are reacting mainly through in-house measures to be able to steer the developments. I think the last question was for you.
Yeah. Thanks, Andreas. You mentioned, yeah, as you said, the AI buzzword. Yeah, as Robert mentioned before, we are investing in technology and the transformation. So far, we are not using AI in our own systems to match candidates with clients, but for sure, we use the tools like sync and LinkedIn, which also have new features for matching the candidates within their databases where we have the licenses and use it very heavily for our recruiting.
Sorry, Mr. Gelitzki. We cannot hear you.
Yes, now.
Yes.
For how long was that?
Five seconds.
Five seconds. The last sentence was that we are sure that we will be using AI tools for our database in quite a short time. Just on the line breakdowns, that speaker we use for years now and it never broke down. Sorry for that. Just to add on your answer, the matching we do within our system, this is something which is developed for many, many, many years. The profiling, etc., is, I would say, highly sophisticated. For me, it is very easy. The whole world is talking about using AI, but the real usage is something which, in the end, also we are working on, that you use full data to find gaps, to find similarities, and to be faster and more proactive, not only in matching, but in a lot of fields of our businesses.
Very important for training, very important for staffing, and very important also in combining both and driving customer satisfaction. This is why we are investing in that technology topics so much. I do not want to call it just in AI because it is the full picture, the full infrastructure, architecture, data usage, and then technology on that usage you have to have in place. Sorry for adding that, but the dependency on that one single buzzword, Andreas, for me, it is very important, also in portfolio, for example, in offerings and training. As a skill, also requested by our customers in staffing and as a technology use for us, but it is part of the story only. Yeah.
Great. Thank you. Dennis, on the very last question on the temp decline, is it mainly overcapacity on the client side or what is behind, actually? Thank you.
Yeah, but it's a decreasing demand at the moment, which we also see might be overcapacity. It is due to the fact that our corporations, our customers are not very, say, confident about their future situation. It is a very tense situation at the moment.
Okay, great. Thank you for the insight.
Thank you for your questions, Andreas. In view of the time, Mr. von Wülfing, do we have time just to cover two further questions?
Absolutely.
Okay. We will move on with the questions from Finn Kemper.
Good morning, guys. I hope you can hear me. Thanks for taking my question and thanks for the detailed presentation. I have two brief questions. One is that you've demonstrated quite stable gross margins, also despite the rising wage inflation. Can you walk us through how pricing discipline is maintained across the client segments and how sensitive demand is to your rate adjustments in this current macro backdrop? Secondly, looking ahead, the calendar impact becomes increasingly supportive. I mean, there's a notable increase in working days into 2026 and 2027. With new-term hiring demand still subdued, how should we think about the incremental margin contribution from this, let's call it tailwind, assuming a stable utilization environment? Could this working day dynamic maybe help offset some softer volume trends and provide some sort of a P&L resilience?
I mean, it would be great if you could shed some light on this. Thank you.
Yep. If I take the questions, first, pricing, we do not feel actually too much pressure on pricing. There is some, but in the end, if I start with permanent placement, if a candidate and a client agree on an employment contract and the contract is signed, the acceptance of the terms and conditions we have, which is 30% of the annual package agreed as a placement fee, is well accepted in the market. Here, it's a question of volume and conversion, but not of actually pricing. Wage inflation is value growth for us because as we are related through the annual package and negotiated, the fee is higher if there's underlying wage inflation, which we still saw last year.
At a more limited level, we expect there to be wage inflation also this year, not inflating like the last years, although some unions' requests currently feel different and some news read in the newspapers, but I do think that there is from corporations, a lot of pressure on prices. In temporary staffing, it is, not the same, but comparable. We calculate our hourly charge rate based on the monthly salary. We do pay our temp employees. Still, it is the case that we only can recruit a temp employee if we pay a decent price in terms of monthly salary. Then we pass it throughout the hourly charge rate to our customers. Is there no pressure? No, but is there significant pressure on prices? No, because currently, if a client requests a temp, there is a relevant need.
You try to find the right person and the right skills. Secondly, the best price. In training, the pricing situation is basically fixed. As Monika already said, in a large part, which is the funded training, it's not easy to foresee how those prices will change in the upcoming one or two years. Normally, there's a slight inflation increase in prices, but we don't have any information how that development will be in the short term. There is some pressure on B2B trainings, I would say, because this is early cycle business and the training budgets of a lot of corporations are decreasing. We do see some pressure here in our smallest part of the business. B2C, back again, very stable. It's a long-term decision, for example, to become a tax advisor and to try to do it best and not the cheapest. First question.
Second question, if that was okay, Finn. Second question is regarding the chargeable days. Unfortunately, no impact this year, as you mentioned, but the next two years, we have a higher level of chargeable days. This is supporting bottom line. It is more days to train. It is more days to charge temp. It is not really impacting permanent placement, but all other services, including interim management, there are more days a year where you can charge your customers by the hours delivered. These are normally longer in permanent placement, sorry, in personal staffing services. These are longer-lasting assignments. If there are more days in a 6-month, 12-month, 18-month assignment, you will charge more hours.
Great. Thank you. Appreciate it.
You can calculate it, sales divided by days. Very easy because it is falling through. These additional hours are falling through operational result, pre-tax.
All right. All right. Thank you.
Thank you for your questions, Finn. We will move on to our chat box. We have a question from Bojan. I guess we already covered it a bit. He wants to, or he asked, can you give us more granularity on the technology investments for every segment? What are you investing in and what amounts should we expect in terms of CapEx?
Very much in detail. I do think we are a little bit running out of time, but, as I said, the increase was around EUR 6 million in 2024, OpEx. Not that much in CapEx. We are not that CapEx intense. This is already answering the second part of the question. Amadeus Fire business training and staffing is asset light. For us, the picture of OpEx combined with depreciation from CapEx is the picture we take because of the transition projects I already mentioned. New CRM ERP system for staffing. New ERP CRM system for training. Big data projects. Use technology on data projects.
The whole infrastructure, cloudification, etc., we set and have in place to a large extent. Microsoft partnership we are in or we entered, and still having some old systems running because all the transition projects I described have to be completed before we can turn off everything we used before. Not everything, but a couple of things is ending in a plateauing situation. The plateau is actually 2024, 2025, and 2026. The decision to enter that path was taken in 2022. We are in plan and we are well advanced on a lot of things, but it is still impacting also the 2026 business related to our future growth.
Related to probably sales or gross profit figures and also in absolute terms, that plateau should deliver additional opportunities, let's put it that way. The following years that we will see at least related to the overall business, a decreasing portion of technology expenditure.
All right. Thank you so much. I guess we have three questions, but in view of the time, maybe we can answer them later.
I thought it's invited to 10:00 A.M., so.
That's all right. I have the time for me. It's fine.
I answer every question.
Okay. We have two questions from Klaus Schilling. The first one is, looking at your guidance for this year and having been following your communication style, is it fair to say that your full year 2025 corporate guidance is more on the bearish side?
Nice question, Klaus. I explained the assumption that the environment in 2025 will not change positively. I think that is the bearish part. If this is the case, then it's the outlook. If it differs, opportunities.
All right. Klaus has a second question. Can you give a bit more color on cost-cutting measures within the AAD Group and in what dimension they will occur?
Thanks, Klaus, for the second very interesting question. This is not that easy to answer because a lot of measures are already planned and budgeted, anticipated already last year. Some additional will follow. If you look at the full SG&E portfolio, you will realize that we decreased already Dennis' organization last year. I said 9% year on year. That decrease took part mostly in second half year. Step by step, we are continuing that by cautiously monitoring fluctuation. That delivers a high volume of savings, actually. Also, in our IT investments I was talking about, we will not be below 2024 year's level, but we will cautiously monitor that the step-up will not be too high and lower as initially planned.
The cost program I mentioned, which is, we try to identify positions which do deliver some savings in 2025 and do not impact our top-line business in a similar way, is also a seven-digit number. some million. And so on and so forth. It is a large-scale project we are looking in, but actually, I do not want now to expose a detailed figure because in the end, it is also a mixture of top-line development and how we execute the measures we prepared depending on the development of the business. Because in the end, what I said is most important that we have a motivated and intact organization in place to regain from opportunities given the bearish outlook 2025, but I am not bearish for the upcoming years. Now, I cannot hear you.
Yeah. Now I missed to unmute myself. Before I missed some additional words, Klaus wanted to know you, Robert, once again, big congrats to your contract extension. This is great news and well-deserved. The last question we have from Christoph Hoffmann. What is your relevant market share in the temporary staffing sector and how has it developed over the past year?
In accounting, we measure it, and it's hard to get the in-detail figures, 16%-18%, clear market leader. In the rest of the commercial fields, it should be clearly below 5%. Depending on the definition, let's say between 3% and 4%. That's the market share. The overall market in temporary staffing, just to give you an idea of the development in Germany, exceeded before the pandemic 1 million employees in temporary staffing, and it's probably now below 600,000. This is not a 2024 development only. This is ongoing development now for some time.
Thank you for answering. In the meantime, we have received no further questions. We therefore come to the end of today's earnings call. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for participating and your shown interest in the Amadeus Fire Group. Should further questions arise at a later time, please feel free to contact investor relations. Also, big thank you to you, Mr. von Wülfing, Mr. Gerlitzki, and Mrs. Wiederhold for your time today, for the presentation and the time you took to answer all those questions. From my side, I wish you all a lovely day. Yeah, Mr. von Wülfing, I guess the final words belong to you. They will conclude our call for today.
Thank you very much for being interested in our company. For all of us, a better than expected 2025. This is what we are, well, a little bit hoping for, and we will see a nice development in the upcoming years. Thanks. Thank you.